Hair: Straw blondeEyes: BlueHeight: 5’1”Weight: 110lbsOther: Slender, lithe, Aquila is a very small person, which affords her a great deal of space in otherwise cramped cockpits. She always wears heels or platform shoes to help off-set her shortness. Always wears a small necklace with a four-leave clover pendent on it.

Aquila is the seventh child in a well off family of successful merchants. Her parents believed that a credit saved is a credit earned so, as a result, Aquila was always given hand-me-downs from her older siblings. She was loved, dearly, being the youngest, there was never a shortage of attention from anyone in her family though, there were times when she found herself alone as everyone seemed to be busy, including her siblings since there was an age difference of 7 years between her and the next oldest in the family.

Fast forward a few simple and mundane years, right after graduation from high school, the family business suddenly faced lawsuits and charges for various crimes that were committed. It seemed the New Republic was laying charges of war crimes against the entire business and everyone within it save a few people who were quickly acquitted. Unfortunately, that the acquittal didn’t include those in the top, which meant Aquila found herself enlisting in the NIF Flight Academy after being told to leave home, her parents hoping to allow her to evade inquiry and prosecution.

As she progressed though the academy, every so often she would catch small news blurbs of the trial, hearing the charges and the evidence presented before the public. The more Aquila heard, the less she wanted to believe that her parents and indeed, one of her older siblings, who were also involved with the family business, were guilty. Transportation of POWs to Kessel? Smuggling? Extortion? Fraud? Illegal shipping?

She wanted to scream out that it wasn’t true, and she did one night, shouting it’s not true drawing a few puzzled looks from some of the other pilot trainees in the lounge. Aquila managed to save herself by saying that she didn’t like how innocent shipping companies were being falsely charged and hindered from making an honest living. It was a quick save as many people readily agreed with her and thought nothing else of it after that.

One by one, her other siblings were found and brought into the whole fold, also charged with evading arrest. When the fifth sibling was finally arrested, Aquila realized that only she and one other sibling remained at this point but escape from the academy was probably just as impossible as escape from the jail the rest of her family was being held in so she stuck it out, becoming very suspicious of everyone, fearing they might be a bounty hunter or one of the agents sent out to find and bring her in.

It became hard to concentrate; her performance was slipping as doubt began to surface in her mind. Was it right for her to be allowed to hide like this while everyone else suffered in jail, awaiting trial? Guilt took over the doubt in her mind as she worried for her family, wondering what conditions were like for them, what they were going though, would they be found guilty for their crimes that she knew they didn’t commit?

Her performance was reaching a point where Aquila was in danger of being kicked out, forced back out into the galaxy and that’s when she reached the crossroads in her life as the Commander gave her a choice and it was one that she knew would determine her fate, for good or for ill.

She could leave, and then either try and find a new place upon which she could hide and eventually be found or she could save those looking for her the trouble and turn herself in and let her mind rest easily as she could be prosecuted with her entire family and let the drama finally end.

Or, Aquila could shape up and stay, which meant a limited amount of freedom in exchange for a great deal of protection within the New Imperial Federation since none of them had any idea about her relation, or if they did, no one was making the connection yet though how could they when there was so many documents to filter though? And besides, when she first joined, the whole scandal was just a small little article in some local newsholo. By now, her file was probably deep within some archive somewhere, never to see the light of a holoscreen or datapad again.
Her choice was obvious as she redoubled her efforts to stay and improve her skills and performance. It was her hopes that staying would allow the trials to be delayed and in that time, hopefully she could make some powerful or useful friends who might be able to help her find evidence proving her family was innocent of all the stupid charges laid against them. If nothing else, it allowed her to be concealed by a powerful, growing military might that had the power, resources and people to challenge the entire galaxy and bring it back under a unified rule, just like during the old Empire era that her parents always talked about, “The good old days”.

When graduation day came around, she and the other graduates were given their ranks, pats on the backs and subsequently loaded into a shuttle and taken away to begin the phase of their lives upon a warship of the New Imperial Federation. Aquila could only hope that she would survive long enough in the military life to make her decision worth it because she had a gripping fear as the shuttle entered hyperspace, bringing her ever closer to a life she was told she’d never have to join, and ever further away from home and family…